United States

Deutsche's Americas executives are at pains not to take success for granted, writes David Rothnie.

Wells Fargo has informed staff in the US that it is delaying the reopening of its offices in the country as a result of rising Covid-19 cases.

Banks are seeing light at the end of the tunnel as they emerge from major cost cutting exercises at the same time as economies around the world begin to emerge, erratically, from pandemic restrictions. Now the question is whether there will be enough capital markets business to go around.

Moelis & Co supercharged its capital markets team last year just in time to take advantage of the booming market for special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs). But as the craze subsides, the team continues to expand, with the firm looking to generate repeat business from clients that appreciate its product-agnostic approach.

The US regulator’s demand for more disclosures from Chinese companies planning New York listings may be a death knell for the flow of IPOs between the two markets — but it could go a long way towards offering investors some much-needed transparency.

An international consortium is seeking a $275m loan to support its acquisition of DuPont Clean Technologies.

US-listed hybrid electric vehicle maker Li Auto has hit the road for its Hong Kong secondary listing. The deal could raise around HK$13.1bn ($1.68bn) based on the last close of its US stock.

China’s securities regulator is pushing for closer co-operation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to support overseas listings.

TechnipFMC, the French-US energy technologies group, executed on Thursday night its second block sale of shares in Technip Energies, the engineering and construction subsidiary it span off in February. Despite the holiday season, the parent achieved a fractionally higher price than in the last trade and a significantly tighter discount.

It is difficult these days, if not impossible, to find a bank that does not have an official policy or target to boost diversity and inclusion. By pushing them out of their comfort zones, could the pandemic help finally turn these aspirations into reality?

Investment banks are broadening the search for talent and tweaking their recruitment message to attract and retain the bankers of the future, as working conditions and corporate culture emerge as hot topics after a difficult period for staff in the industry.

Aligning with a global commercial bank has been on Jefferies’ agenda for several years, but its alliance with SMBC signals an intent to join the investment banking big league. By David Rothnie.